Driving efficiency to increase production

Added on 15 May 2020

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Driving efficiency to increase production

A 2012 study found that legal, indoor medical cannabis cultivation was responsible for roughly 3 percent of California's electricity consumption in 2012 - enough energy to power a million homes. That was six years before the implementation of Proposition 64 (the initiative to legalize recreational cannabis) in 2018, and utility companies state-wide are looking for solutions to a looming energy crisis as increases in medical and now recreational cannabis production make California the world's single largest cannabis economy.

A traditional indoor cannabis farm using high pressure sodium (HPS) lights with 10,000 square feet of flowering space can draw up to 550 kW of power for just lighting alone - that's 6,775 percent more than a modern commercial office space of the same size². In an effort to validate more energy-efficient lighting technologies that not only reduce strain on the grid, but also enable growers to achieve their cultivation and business goals, the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) partnered with commercial cannabis producer, Amplified Farms to determine if LED technology is a viable alternative to HPS lighting.